Last Friday, we learned the shocking news that Boba Fett is returning in The Mandalorian season 2. It’s thought to be a relatively small role, but this is a big deal for fans. There’s no other Star Wars character who made as much impact with so little screentime, after all, so to have the original Mandalorian bounty hunter back in business is pretty exciting. The question is, though, how will he fit into the plot? Well, ScreenRant has pulled a theory together suggesting what we’re probably all thinking: that Boba is another party on the hunt for Baby Yoda.
First of all, Fett may have already returned in Chapter 5 of season 1, when the distinctive clinking spurs sound of his boots was heard approaching the unconscious Fennec Shand. The ex-Imperial assassin was on Tatooine to meet with someone unknown and the potential Fett cameo tells us that someone was likely him. Min-Na Wen is returning as Shand for season 2 as well, so this adds fuel to that idea.
SR posits that both Shand and Fett are in the employ of an Imperial Remnant based on Tatooine, as season 1 alluded to there being a covert Imperial base on the desert planet, now that the Hutts have abandoned it. It’s possible that his near-death experience with the Sarlaac beast has left him in poor health, which is why Fett’s still on Tatooine and hasn’t resumed his bounty hunting ways.
He may be on the hunt for someone very special, though. The most feasible option has to be that both Shand and Fett have been hired by Tatooine’s Imperial Remnant to find Baby Yoda. Gideon probably isn’t in control of the Tatooine faction, but remember, Palpatine’s really running all these remnants, as Rise of Skywalker revealed he never died. So, it’s actually the former Emperor who wants The Child and therefore, all the Imperial Remnants do.
Everything centers on Baby Yoda in The Mandalorian, so it only makes sense that Fett’s return would, too. We’ll find out the truth though when the series returns to Disney Plus this October.